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Chapter 17: Love Heart's Teaching Begins

Alex and Germaine stared open-mouthed at the massive house. "This is where you live!?" Alex shot an accusing glare at Daniel, "Why the hell did you treat us like crap for so many years?!"

"Alex, that's enough!" Germaine pulled on his arm, then turned to face Daniel, "But really, you felt the need to be so cruel to us when you lived in this kind of luxury."

Daniel sighed, "I've been changed into a plush toy badger, I think I've been punished enough."

Alex bared his teeth, "After everything you did to us-"

"STOP IT!" Love Heart shouted and turned to face the three of them, "I don't know what's between you three but if I'm going to teach you then you need to stop being at each other's throats now!" He folded his arms, "Now I need you three to talk to each other and me and tell me just what the hell is going between the three of you." Love Heart's little tirade stunned the three into silence.

After a full minute, Germaine spoke, "Alex and I have known each other since first grade and when we all moved to a new school Daniel started bullying us for being different."

Daniel took a deep breath, "I was human at the time, two years ago I was turned into this badger and I blamed these two for it."

"And we've hated each other ever since," Alex folded his arms, "Is that enough?"

Love Heart sighed and put his hand to his forehead, "I'll have to work with it. I suppose I should ask: can we use your house for training Daniel?"

Daniel opened his mouth for a moment, then shut it, then finally spoke, "Yes, you can come over to train or practise or whatever you want, and Love Heart, you can stay here as long as you want."

Alex rounded on Daniel, "What the hell!? Why are you being nice to him?"

Daniel sighed, "Let's just say I've had a lot to think about. I'm sorry Alex, Germaine."

Alex just stared as Daniel walked up to the house and opened the door. "How...why...does he this makes it better?!"

Germaine put a hand on Alex's shoulder, "Maybe not, but I guess we have to try."

Alex grit his teeth and sighed through them, "Fine!" He and Germaine followed Love Heart into the house.

As they passed through the house, Alex caught up to Daniel and grabbed his shoulder, "Before I agree to work with you, can you just tell me what your problem is?"

Daniel bristled and turned around, pushing Alex's arm off his shoulder, "Do you really want to know? Well you had parents right?"

Alex's eye twitched and bared his teeth, "Yes, I had grandparents what's your point?"

"So do I," Daniel sighed then spread his arms, "see this big house, that giant TV, those game consoles? I have all of this because they both work so hard, but they work too much. Sometimes I think they just enjoy working hard for it's own sake."

Alex's expression softened, "You miss them?"

"Always, but what can I do? If they don't work I don't get all this stuff, or an allowance that lets me do whatever I want whenever I want," Daniel sighed.

"And your friends didn't help with this?" Alex's eyes narrowed.

Daniel grunted, "I don't have any friends, not anymore. I had two friends before the big school merge but they both moved away, one moved across town and the last time I saw him he had lost interest in everything we used to do together and the other's dad is in the RCMP so they move to a new city every couple years; I got a phone call from him last year but we didn't have a chance to meet up, not like he would have recognized me anyway," Daniel looked at his grey furred arm.

Germaine finally joined the conversation, "What did your parents say when they saw you were a badger?"

"Not much. I rarely actually see them anymore. Last month dad saw me and asked why I was a badger, so I told him that a voice from the sky changed me into one," Daniel rolled his eyes, "He told me that was fine as long as I was happy with it." Daniel turned away from the fox and raccoon, "the reason I acted the way I did was to force them to pay attention to me, to acknowledge that I had problems and do something about them, but the most they did was tell me not to do it again, they never even sounded disappointed."

"So why pick on us?" Germaine walked around to look him in the eyes.

Daniel averted his gaze from her, "I guess because I saw you as easy targets. Being a bully was just the only way I could make sure people knew I existed, even if they hated me."

Alex growled, "I still don't forgive you for all that shit you pulled."

"I'm not surprised, I wouldn't either." Daniel sighed, "I can't even remember their names."

"What?" Alex walked around to look Daniel in the face.

"My parents, I can't even remember their names. They're alive but they're just ghosts to me these days. Some days I forget they even exist until I run into one of them late at night on the weekends." Daniel pushed past Alex and headed into the backyard.

Alex just stared at Daniel as he exited the house, "That's messed up."

Love Heart stood in the back yard and faced Alex, Germaine and Daniel. "Alright, let's get started." Love Heart held up his hands and a shimmering blue cloud appeared in his open palms.

"Oh my!" Germaine leaned closer to get a better look at the substance.

"What is that?" Alex squinted and tilted his head to the side.

Love Heart stepped forwards so they could get a better look, "This is mana. Mom..." Love Heart stopped then took a deep breath, "It exists in every living thing and it's what we use for magic. You have to learn to create and control it for both kinetics and Care Bear magic." Love Heart held his hands forwards, "Touch it?"

"I...I don't know," Germaine shrank away from the mist.

"Is that stuff safe?" Anger Heart eyed the blue mist warily.

Daniel sighed and stuck his hand into the mana. "Oooh!" He jerked his hand back, "It feels like pins and needles."

"Like your hand fell asleep?" Germaine asked. Daniel just nodded.

"Well, OK." Alex reached forwards cautiously and stuck his hand into the mist, "yow!" he jerked his hand back, "That's not pins and needles! It's hot!"

Daniel glowered at Alex, "Hey, I swear it was pins and needles!"

"Like hell!" Alex looked like he was about to pounce on Daniel, and Daniel was readying himself for a fight, then Germaine stepped between them.

"Please, don't fight," she looked from Alex to Daniel then back to Love Heart, "Should it feel different."

Love Heart shrugged but kept the mist in his hands, "I don't know, I'm still new at this."

Alex rounded on Love Heart, "New at this?! You just started learning magic?!"

"Teaching magic," Love Heart glared at Alex, "I showed Confidence Heart the same stuff but she was just learning the basics before I left. She hadn't even started learning her element yet."

"OK, I can do this," Germaine took a deep breath and reached into the blue field of mana. She shivered, "It feels damp." She pulled her hand out and wiped it on her shirt, only to realise it wasn't wet. She held up her hand in front of her face for a moment when a thought occurred to her, "Does how it feels help us find out element?"

"Huh?" Alex and Daniel both turned to her.

Germaine touched her chest, "It felt wet for me so maybe my element is water," she pointed to Alex, "Yours was hot so your element is probably fire," she pointed to Daniel, "If it felt tingly for you then your element might be lightning."

"Actually that would be air." Love Heart let the field of mana disappear, "Lightning is an aspect of air and cold is an aspect of water, you need to pick one to focus on when you start and you can learn others later."

"Too bad you're not earth, then we could summon Captain Planet," Alex snickered at Daniel.

Daniel rolled his eyes, "Right."

"Who's that?" Love Heart half-squinted his left eye towards Alex.

"Old kid's show I used to watch, trust me don't bother." Alex turned back to Love Heart, "So now what?"

Love Heart folded his arms and thought for a moment, "I can show you how to conjure mana or I you can choose your Care Bear names and I can give you your chest symbols."

"Chest symbols?" Daniel pointed at the hearts on Love Heart's chest, "You mean like that weird tattoo you have?"

Love Heart pulled his collar down farther to show his entire symbol to them. "Yes, this is my chest symbol. It's what we use to use our Care Bear magic, like this." Love Heart held his right hand up to his chest symbol as it glowed. One bright flash of light later and a longsword had appeared in his hand.

"Whoa!" Alex stared.

"What the?!" Daniel recoiled.

"Oh my," Germaine covered her mouth with her hands.

Love Heart swung the sword a couple times then held it up, "It's not just weapons, our symbols also let us use the Care Bear Stare."

"What does staring do?" Daniel cocked his head on the side.

"It's a weapon, here." Love Heart dissipated his sword, which startled Alex and Germaine, then turned to face sideways. He held up his hands and clenched his fists. His symbol glowed red, "Care Bear Stare!" a bright red beam of light fired off from his chest symbol and struck the fence nearby, which let off a shower of hearts and stars. Love Heart stopped and turned back to the other three.

"How did, I mean what was that?" Daniel was staring at Love Heart with his mouth hanging out.

"The Care Bear Stare is a weapon, at least I think it is. I've only used it twice, once to fight a strange golem and it caused the thing to get confused and explode then a second time to fight person that called himself No-Heart and it seemed to hurt him because he was evil," Love Heart scratched his head then folded his arms, "I'm not exactly sure how that works."

"How does it tell that someone is evil? Isn't evil a childish concept because people are just different?" Germaine raised her right hand with her palm upwards.

"I think good and evil do exist, just not as prominent as the world as the media would have us believe," Daniel folded his arms and looked at the ground, "But as much as it is immature to believe that the world is composed purely of black and white I think it's naïve to believe that the world consists entirely of shades of grey as well, there are people out there who are altruistic in ways we can't fathom and others whose self interest and lack of empathy make anyone sick. Both are rare but they do exist." Daniel looked up at Germaine.

"I guess," Germaine averted her eyes from Daniel then looked at Love Heart, "So how do we get our chest symbols?"

Love Heart touched his hand to his chest symbol, "I can give them to you, once you pick your Care Bear name."

Alex narrowed his eyes and raised his right hand with his index finger extended, "Why do we need another name?"

Love Heart looked down with his arms folded, "It's a representation of what you stand for. You're not giving up your old name but this name is going to help define who you are and what you feel is the most important thing to you." He looked up, "My girlfriend's name is Confidence Heart Fennec but she was born with the name Cassandra Avalon. I call her Confidence Heart but her brother still calls her Cassandra. It's up to you what you prefer to be called but it is important to what your symbol is going to look like."

"So we have to pick a name that represents us?" Daniel tilted his head to the side.

"Well," Love Heart spun his right hand, "One that represents what emotion or personality trait you think best embodies who you are."

Daniel snickered and jabbed a thumb towards Alex, "I guess he should be called 'Anger Heart Fox'."

"WHAT?!" Alex rounded furiously on Daniel.

Daniel just smirked as he turned to Alex, "You're just about the angriest person I know, with a fuse too short to measure."

Alex stepped forwards and grabbed Daniel's collar, "How about I start calling you 'Defiant Heart Badger' since you keep pushing everyone's buttons trying to show off that you can get away with anything?"

It was Daniel's turn to glare at Alex and bare his own teeth, "Defiant? And you're not helping you case, 'Anger Heart', and so what if I defy people all the time?"

"Enough, both of you!" Germaine had stepped between the two and forced Alex and Daniel apart, "Don't start fighting, we're here to learn something about ourselves and how to use magic." She looked from Daniel to Alex, "But I think those names suit both of you."

"WHAT?!" Alex and Daniel both shouted which forced Germaine to cover her ears for a moment.

Germaine uncovered her ears and continued, "Alex, you do have a short temper but anger isn't a bad thing: people need to be able to express their anger and let it out safely without letting it build until it overwhelms them." She turned her head to face Daniel, "And Daniel, I think it's good that you defy people's orders and expectations from time to time, it's better to try and change things every so often instead of just letting things stay stagnant the was they are."

Both the fox and the badger were silent for a moment.

"OK," Daniel put his hands in his pockets.

"Fine," Alex folded his arms.

Germaine smiled, "Good. Now what should my name be?" She looked from Daniel, to Love Heart then to Alex.

Love Heart folded his arms and quirked his head to the right, "Don't you want to pick your own name? Confidence Heart did."

Germaine shook her head, "No. From her name, Confidence Heart sounds like she knows what makes her who she is but I, and many people, are blind to both their greatest strengths and their lowest weaknesses," Germaine touched a hand to her chest, "I would like to know what all of you think is my greatest strength."

Love Heart gave her an inquiring look, "Sorry, Germaine, but I just met you."

Daniel smirked, "Well I think you're good at keeping people on track or at least from flying off the handle."

Alex growled, but sighed and put a hand on Germaine's shoulder, "He's right. Without you I don't think I could have held myself back as well as I could, especially not with him," Alex glared at Daniel.

Love Heart smirked, "Sounds like your greatest quality is your ability to guide people."

"Do you think so?" Germaine looked at each of the three, who each nodded in return, "Alright, then my name will be Guidance Heart Raccoon."

"Good," Love Heart clapped his hands, then paused. "I can't give you your tummy symbols through your clothes."

"Wait, so we're going to have to...strip?" Germaine blushed ferociously.

"Just your shirt," Daniel already had his t-shirt halfway off.

Alex took his hand from Germaine's shoulder and reached down to the hem of his shirt, "You don't have to." He pulled his shirt inside out and over his head.

"No...No I will." Germaine took a deep breath then carefully pulled her shirt off. As soon as it was off her left arm flew to cover her chest as she wasn't wearing a bra.

Love Heart didn't seem bothered but Daniel stared at Germaine. "Yeesh, why did you go commando today?" the badger asked.

Alex glared at Daniel, "That's none of your business!" He turned to Love Heart, "Get this over with before someone see this!"

Love Heart sighed then took a deep breath. His chest symbol lit up and a bright comet of white light flew towards the three. It spiraled around first Daniel, then Germaine and finally Alex and left a glowing light on their chests. A moment later the light faded and they could see their chest symbols.

Daniel's symbol was a pirate flag with crossed swords and a red heart instead of a skull, Germaine's was a red and gold heart shaped compass and Alex's was a red heart with a fire burning inside of it. Each of them touched their symbols as Love Heart smiled at them, "Welcome to the Care Bear Magi, Defiant Heart Badger, Guidance Heart Raccoon and Anger Heart Fox."

Guidance Heart already had her shirt halfway on by the time the glow from her symbol faded. Her face was still bright red when it emerged from the neck hole, "Am I going to have to do that again?"

"No, you can wear something low-cut like this," Love Heart tugged at the collar of his low cut t-shirt.

Guidance Heart somehow blushed even deeper, "But with where my symbol is, that means everyone will see..." she covered her face with her hands.

"So people will see your cleavage, so what?" Defiant Heart still had his shirt off. He prodded his chest symbol, "Wasn't expecting a pirate flag."

"Watch it!" Anger Heart growled at Defiant Heart.

"I don't see the big deal, I mean you can't see anything 'naughty' even when you're completely naked, unless you want them to. Believe me I checked," Defiant Heart shrugged.

"He's right," Love Heart tapped his foot on the ground and glared at the three. "But we still have to start-"

"That's not the point!" Guidance Heart's voice was high pitched and her breath was short, "It's...I mean...I don't like to expose myself to people."

"Except Alex," Defiant Heart smirked.

This time it was Anger Heart's turn to blush as he pulled his shirt on, "That's none of your business!" he averted his gaze from Defiant Heart.

"Enough!" Love Heart shouted which turned their attention back to him. "You can talk about your personal lives later, right now we need to start your magic lessons!"

Love Heart's commanding voice managed to dispel the embarrassment that was soaking into Anger Heart and Guidance Heart. Defiant Heart pulled his shirt back on as Love Heart continued.

"First you need to learn how to conjure mana, like I just did," Love Heart held out his hand, "Take my hand, I need to show you something."

Once all three of Love Heart's new students took hold of his hand, he sent a jolt of magic into them. All three of them felt the tingle travel up their arms and into the rest of their bodies, and a moment later they could all see bright blue lines criss-crossing the air surrounding them.

"These are aether strings. They are the conduits that carry magic around the world." Love Heart closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "Can you feel that spark surrounding, the warm feeling? That is what mana feels like when it's not being influenced by your own magical potential."

Guidance Heart shuddered, "I feel it. Can you see these things all the time?"

"Only when I want to. Once you have a grasp of magic you can decide to hide them from your sight so they don't get distracting." Love Heart withdrew his hand from them and the field of aether strings vanished. "Your first task is to find that spark of magic deep inside of yourselves and bring it out. Remember what you just felt when I showed you the aether strings? Search for the feeling deep inside and try to bring it out." Love Heart held up his hands with his palms facing inwards, "bring it up and out through your hands until you can do this." Love Heart conjured a small field of blue mana again.

Anger Heart took a deep breath, "Alright, here goes." He closed his eyes and did his best to reach down and find that same feeling. Guidance Heart and Defiant Heart watched him for a moment, then followed suit. Love Heart watched them for a moment and smirked slightly as he saw Defiant Heart's strained face.

After five minutes, Defiant Heart and Guidance Heart stopped. "I can feel it, but it's so far out of reach," Guidance Heart slumped down to her knees.

"I feel like I'm constipated," Defiant Heart stretched then turned to Anger Heart, "Yeesh. Give it up, Alex, before you hurt yourself."

Anger Heart grunted then bared his teeth with his eyes still closed, "Almost, yeeeaaarg!" There was a sparkle between his hand then a shimmer as a faint field of blue mist appeared in his hands. Anger Heart opened his eyes and smiled, then lifted up his hand, "I...did...it..." he panted.

Love Heart stared at Anger Heart with his mouth hung open in shock, "What? But how? Even me and sister couldn't do it on our first tries."

Anger Heart's smile turned into a smug grin, "Heh...guess I'm just...that good." He started to feel light headed and his hands fell to his side. Guidance Heart and Defiant Heart raced over to catch him as he nearly fell backwards.

"Alex! Are you alright?" Guidance Heart helped him to stand.

Anger Heart took a deep breath, "I'm tired, why am I so tired?"

"Because you just used up some of your mana," Love Heart stepped forwards. "Mana is both the source of life and the fuel for magic and by bringing it out you used some of yours up."

"What?!" Anger Heart struggled to stand on his own, "Is this going to kill me?"

Love Heart offered a hand to Anger Heart, "No, your body won't let you drain enough to cause any permanent harm, and as you drain your magic it will build back up stronger than before."

"Like with exercise?" Guidance Heart asked.

Love Heart nodded, "Exactly."

Anger Heart panted, finally able to stand on his own, "Still exhausted, and hungry."

"I'll treat you to dinner, downtown then?" Defiant Heart motioned towards the door.

"Why are you being so nice today?" Anger Heart glared at Defiant Heart.

Defiant Heart sighed, "Let's just say I'm defying my past ad moving forwards, OK?"

"We're still not friends." Anger Heart accepted Guidance's help to stay upright.

"I wouldn't expect us to be this soon, but at least I can try," Defiant Heart headed out the door.

Alex sighed, "Fine, and maybe next time I'll make you something actually good to eat."